What is the difference between a coupon and a discount?
Purpose
To define what coupons, vouchers and discount are, and to outline the differences between them.
Introducing terms and concepts used in this article
Term | Definition |
|---|---|
Coupon | applies a percentage reduction on some or all products. We offer support for both shipping coupons used to reduce or remove shipping charges and percentage coupons used to apply a % reduction on all products except shipping products. |
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) | (ERP), a collection of your critical business operating systems, such as product, stock levels, financial, customers, suppliers and so on that run on the same platform. |
Trade or ERP discount | configured in your ERP, and automatically transferred from you ERP during your regular import. May apply to certain customers. |
Voucher | deducts a fixed amount from the total due on an order. A voucher can be used multiple times and reduces over time. If the amount of the order is greater than the voucher value, the remaining balance is charged to credit card. If the amount of the order is less than the voucher value, the order amount is deducted from the voucher, and the voucher balance is reduced by the same amount The remaining voucher value can be used at a later time. |
More information
As a merchant, you may want to improve your product offering, by providing gift vouchers, discount-based coupons or trade / ERP discounts on all or some of your products in your product catalogue. This article explains the key differences between these three terms.
A coupon applies a percentage reduction on some or all products. It is not a fixed-amount discount that can be applied many times. Instead, it reduces the total cost of some or all products by a percentage amount configured by you. It can be configured as a shipping coupon, which reduces or removes shipping costs if configured criteria are met. The coupon is a fixed amount when configured as a shipping coupon. A full list and description of configuration settings can be read here.
A voucher deducts a fixed amount from the total due on an order. It is a fixed-amount discount that can be applied many times; its value reduces by the amount of the order when your customer uses it. The balance of the coupon can be used by your customer on another order. When setting up a new coupon, you can specify how you wish the coupon to work, such as minimum cart total, whether the coupon is applied automatically, who can use the coupon and so on. A full list and description of configuration settings can be read here.
A trade or ERP discount is a discount that you configure in your ERP for some or all of your customers. It is imported into WebShop as part of your regular update. It is applied if the criteria are met. It is shown to your customers during the checkout process.
Read our feature guide for a detailed look at Using vouchers and coupons in WebShop.
Key points
There are a number of ways that you can provide discounts for your customers.
You can create a coupon or voucher in Management Interface, which are then applied to your customer's orders if the order meets the coupon/voucher criteria.
You can set up trade discounts in your ERP for some or all of your customers, which are imported as part of your regular update. These are applied and shown to your customers during the checkout process.